Code: Tiberium
by roboticj
Summary: (Formerly titled "Exploration") Deciding to continue their adventures using materialization technology, the former Lyoko Warriors come across a planet just like Earth, but infested with Tiberium. Written fully in Odd's POV, with the exception of the Prologue, which is written to set the scene, among other areas. If this seems confusing to you, perhaps read the two previous stories.
1. Prologue

_Chapter 1_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters/story originally placed in it. (Obviously, for this is FANFICTION!)

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_**(An apology to former followers, I left my internet browser open and my brother played a prank on me and deleted this story before I discovered it)**_

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A/N/ Here's a sequel to "Multiple XANA's". Takes place immediately after the end of the last story. Also, for those having trouble with the spacecraft's acronym of AXSAC, I pronounce it as "axe-sack", but I I'll rename it anyway. Also, for those who aren't Command and Conquer nerds, look up the plot of "Command and Conquer 3 - Tiberium Wars". This is loosely based on that. I don't own this either. Please Review!

The battle was over. Not only was the Earth safe from the menace, or in this case- menaces, of the duo of XANAs, but the universe itself was safe too. Now, all there would be to do is reform civilization into what it used to be. The five heroes sat onboard their spaceship that had helped them in their mission, the AXSAC. Of course, now they'd have to rename it since the acronym, standing for Anti-XANA Space Assault Craft, no longer meant anything with both XANAs dead.

"Begin gateway creation, reversed Code Alpha Epsilon 47. No anomalies detected." The computer said. The wormhole gateway reappeared as the battle weary AXSAC made its way towards the portal.

"Engines running at 25%. Hyperspeed warp is knocked out." Jeremie reported from his console located on the right side of the bridge.

"Weapons are all offline from the battle." Aelita reported from her console on the left side of the bridge.

"Air leaks detected on decks 5 and 6, I'm sealing them now," said Ulrich over the intercom.

"There are 3 damaged and 1 destroyed Nav-Skid fighters in the hanger." Yumi reported, also over the intercom.

"Very good, then. Prepare for teleportation back to Earth." Odd said from the command chair in the center of the bridge. Seconds went by until the slowly moving and very badly damaged spacecraft entered the portal, and afterward it docked at the orbital station materialized around earth earlier that week. The five left the AXSAC through a quick teleportation.

"Looks like we have to decommission your spaceship, Odd." Jeremie said, peering at the many holes in its hull and the sounds of the engine, even when it sat idling.

"Don't be too sure!" Odd replied from a console. He placed a flash drive in a port on the console and soon after, a hologram appeared above the AXSAC, which displayed a layout of the ship, which then lowered to align completely with the original

"Repair processes engaged. ETA: 10 seconds," yet another computer notified. A laser flew around the room to instantly repair the damage.

"There! Good as new!" Odd bragged. Ever since learning more about the supercomputer than Jeremie, he always wanted to show it off, "I think I'll rename it. No use for the ship to be related to XANA anymore."

"What then?" asked Jeremie who was eager to put down Odd's latest idea.

"I think the LS Starvoid."

"What is LS?" asked Aelita.

"Well, the United States uses USS, the British use HMSS, and since the ship is based from Lyoko, LS. do you think it's a good name?" Odd asked as the new name of the ship was lasered onto the hull.

"Yes, but we should be getting back to Kadic now. We've been gone for a week." Yumi urged.

"No we haven't. Our clones have been there. We can do anything we want now." Odd remided the others.

"We can still have fun out in space!" Ulrich cheered. Everybody just stared.

"Comming from the one who complained about being in space because it was Odd's ship we would be on," said Aelita.

"Well, you can come if you want, but I'm gonna go check out what the other planets look like that XANA had taken over." Odd said as he stepped on a pad and vanished into the ship.

"Wait for us!" Yumi yelled. They all quickly transfered to the ship as well, right before it blasted through its hanger doors and back into space.

"Nice of you to join me." said Odd.

"You didn't give us much of a choicce. Who knows what kind of trouble you'd get into out here in the universe." said Aelita, mocking Odd's past blunders with XANA that probably would have gotten him killed dozens of times. The newly repaired and renamed LS Starvoid flew swiftly through space, passing quickly by planet Neptune and dwarf planet Pluto.

"I think Pluto should be called a planet," said Yumi as the ship passed by.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jeremie nearly shouted, "Pluto is way too small to be a planet and you know it!" The two began a long argument that ensued for an entire hour before ended it by the activation the ship's hyperspeed and throwing the two to the floor. Complaining, the two yelled at him.

"Odd! What the hell?"

"I am tired of you two bitching all the time. Now, shut up or I will turn this ship around and bring all of you back to Earth!" Odd replied with a stern face. The bridge was deathly silent for the several seconds before Odd's face changed to his usual smile. "I always wanted to say that!" he said laughing. Aelita and Ulrich also joined in on the laughter before the ship's computer gave an alert..

"Attention. The Starvoid is now entering the vacinity of the Andrometa constalation."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ulrich asked.

"It means that we are traveling 700 timees faster than the speed of light!" Jeremie said, reportinng his calculations he just made inside his head.

"Actually it 700.76 times faster." Odd corrected, one-uping Jeremie once again. The group traveled similar to this for several days, visiting and mapping planets, some suittable for human life, some so toxic the ship's hull began to corode by entering an orbit. Throughout this time, none of the planets contained any type of life.

"Comming up on another system of planets," said Aelita from a console, "Nine plan... make that eight planets and one dwarf planet detected. One central star. Third planet looks like it can support human life."

"Uh, Aelita, are you sure you didn't make a mistake plotting our course?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because, look!" Ulrich pointed out the window of the ship, which was heading for the third planet. Continents were clearly visible, especially Europe and the Americas.


	2. Earth?

_Chapter 2_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters/story originally placed in it. I do claim the plot and other things.

A/N: This chapter is in Odd's POV as per my friend's request. _Italics _are Odd's thoughts.

I stood at the front of the bridge, staring in awe at the planet we approached, thinking to myself.

_Sh... Should I do a Star Trek "Captain's Log" right now? It seems like the perfect timing... yeah, I will. What will their response be..._

I walk back to my chair, pressing the one button on my console I hadn't pressed yet, grining to myself as I began to speak to the recorder.

"Captain's Log, Stardate [-28]7860.9. The LS Starvoid has approached a planet that looks nealy the same as Earth. Surface scans show the planet's continents are slightly off from that of our own, giving the impression that this Earth is further along in time. We will attempt a standard orbit to do more investigations," I said with my friends staring at me, "Standard orbit Mr. Stern!" I said to my navigator and best friend before laughing. The others eventually caught on and began laughing too. Ulrich input the plotted course.

"Computer, perform an in-depth scan of the planet." I ordered.

"Working... scans show planet to be a near exact replica of Earth. Strange weather and landforms tied to a single toxic plant. This plant is of alien origin and is deadly to humans," responded the computer. A holographic projection of the planet appeared in the center of the bridge.

"Intercepting transmission from planet. Message is generally well encrypted and reportedly from a place called GDI High Command. Message is as follows:" continued the commputer, switching the voice to that of the transmission.

"Philidelphia Uplink successful. Welcome back commander. Today's threat level is... low. The state of the planet is deteriorating," said another, different computer voice. The corner of the screen of the message displayed EVA. The voice continued as the transmission changed back to the planet, "Red Zones have suffered the worst contamination and can no longer support human life. Yellow Zones are dangerously contaminated, but contain most of the world's population." the message continued, babbling allong about some Brotherhood and a guy called Kane. It identified the plant as Tiberium among other things before continuing with the main transmission, The remainder of the Earth's surface is unscarred by Tiberius outbreak, and is under the protection of the Global Defence Inititave. You have been assigned command of the GDI units on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Good luck commander..."

"Heavily encrypted portion of transmission intercepted. Cannot read file."

"Well…" started Aelita, "now we can confirm a few things."

"What do you think, Jeremie?" I asked.

"I think… I think we should get out of here!" Jeremie shouted, confusing us all as he took evasive action, maneuvering the Starvoid to avoid a blue laser being shot from a satellite.

"Analysis complete. Energy weapon deployed against us. Weapon is as powerful as a nuclear explosion. Atmosphere of this earth contains dozens of these weapons," reported the computer. I pressed a button, giving the order to lock down the ship, just in case we were hit and had an air leak. Alarms sounded around us.

"Get us outta here!" I yelled at the others. Ulrich, our pilot, sat at the terminal and began flying the ship manually, moving out of our standard orbit as more shots from said satellites appeared. The ship rocked and lights flashed on and off as alarms sound. Everyone was yelling as the ship lost all power and began to be pulled through the Earth's atmosphere. Without power, the artificial gravity was off, and we were all thrown in different directions as we plummeted to the earth, somewhere in the center of North America.


	3. Problem

_Chapter 3_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters/story originally placed in it.

A/N: Still in Odd's POV. Probably will be for most of the fanfic. Now we get into the real technicalities of Command and Conquer, so look any terms up. Most of the chapters will be more or less the same, I just look over them a bit. Onto tye story!

I awoke to the sound of Aelita's frantic voice. I opened my eyes to see a dark interior of my proud ship. My vision was blurred and sound was muffled for several seconds. Jeremie and Ulrich were thrown to one side of the bridge and Yumi appeared perfectly fine, along with Aelita, who both stood over me. I, myself, was on the floor near the front of the bridge with a gash on the side of my head which Aelita had just finished tending to. I stood up with their help, dizzy at first before looking out the window at the barren wasteland that would be eastern Iowa of the US. The Mississippi river bed ahead of the ship was completely dry of water, but instead lay a blue crystaline substance. Tiberium. Blue Tiberium. The sky was blanketed with a green tint of clouds and lightning. This entire time, Aelita had been talking to me, I had somehow ignored her.

"Odd, are you alright?" she asked for the sixth time with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah, I have a headache, that's it," I replied, not moving from my blank stare at this alien-like Earth we had crashed on.

"I got the computer going!" Jeremie shouted in the dark. We all moved toward him as the boot screen for the computer finished.

"Location: Eastern Iowa. Using new data: North American Red Zone. Recommend not to exit the ship, Ion Storm Approaching. Crystaline substance known as Tiberium is toxic to direct human contact. The area gives humans less than 20 minutes of outside exposure before the Tiberium in the air mutates lung tissues, effectively killing or possibly mutating the subject," reported the computer with a warped voice as if it were on the verge of death, "Ship status: hopeless. The LS Starvoid cannot be repaired with current on-board technology. Backup digital copy of ship created to terabyte hard drive. Use with any supercomputer to materialize new ship. System failure... shutting... do...w...n."

"Fucking great!" Ulrich complained, "You and your little adventure!" he shouted, pointing towards me.

"You didn't have to come along!" I retallitated.

"Stop it, you two!" Aelita said, stepping between us, "You heard the computer, we can still get home!"

"Hey, is there supposed to be an army marching towards us?" Yumi asked from the window pointing. Outside were many buggy units, colored red and grey with a scorpion symbol on the vehicles.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling we're going to be up for a fight." said Jeremie, opening a supply hatch and grabbing many rifles I had designed along with the now-destroyed ship.

"So, the plan is to fight them and stay here then?" I asked, interested in Jeremie's plan.

"No, we fight and steal one of their vehicles so we can get out of here." Jeremie replied. We all began to walk to one of the ship's exits.

"Just don't touch the Tibridium." said Ulrich, mispronouncing the name of the crystal. I just smiled, not correcting him for fear of his retalliation. Outside, the squad of vehicles and infantry now had the corpse of the Starvoid surrounded. Voices were clearly heard.

"Kane better have good reason for sending us here, Red Zones give me the creeps!" a voice said from outside. A laser shot sounded, following by the dying groan of the same man.

"You are a traitor to NOD! Do not question Kane!" said a female. Banging began on the ship's hatch as we all prepared to fight. The door opened, followed by the ship's warning alarm, activating for seconds before warping to a silence. The next thing I knew, lasers were flying from our weapons, vaporizing the NOD soldiers before any of them got a shot off. Stepping outside, one buggy began to take off in retreat before Ulrich, showing off, vaporized it too with one shot.

"Five of us, five buggies, let's go," I said, "and see if there are any of their uniforms in the buggies. We could use them if we happen to come across any more of em',"

Minutes later, our buggies were bouncing through the Red Zone with the NOD uniforms in tow.

"Where are we going?" Aelita's voice asked from the radio.

"Probably a Blue Zone or whatever they are, there's got to be a powerful supercomputer somewhere on the coast," answered Jeremie. I picked up the radio.

"If this planet is as low tech as I think it is, the only supercomputer powerful enough to materialize a new craft is in the Pentagon. Set course."


	4. Just the Beginning

_Chapter 4_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters originally placed in it.

A/N: Here we get into a more CnC type of deal, as always, please review.

Several hours had passed and the NOD Buggies had ran out of gas several times. Luckily, several abandoned gas stations throughout the Red and Yellow Zones still had fuel in stock. There were people actually living in these areas, who cowered away into their battered homes at the mere sight of the vehicles. It would be impossible to interact with them in the current situation. It would be awhile before we even got close to the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, at the Pentagon – GDI Ground Control

"Who the hell activated the Ion Cannon?" General Grainger yelled.

"InOps reports it ordered by the Philadelphia. Apparently an unidentified ship was not responding to transmissions," answered the InOps Officer Sandra, "We sent in a recon team, all there is left is blood spots, one of which testing positive to that of GDI's Most Wanted NOD Commando. The team was able to extract garbled data from the ship, some of which was video. Here it is now, sound only:"

A screen in the command center flashes with a waving sound bar as Odd's "Captain's Log" comes on the overhead speakers. "Captain's Lo …he LS Starvoid has approached a planet… same as Earth. …scans show the planet's continents are… off from… own. … this Earth is further along in time… We will attempt a standard orbit to do more investigations."

"Ship contained star map, reporting many planets and solar systems. The ship itself was manufactured on Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy." EVA reported.

"So, what your saying is, we have humans from a completely different galaxy here on a peaceful mission and we shot them down, is that right?" asked Grainger

"Correct," replied EVA.

"Where are they now?"

Odd's POV

We passed a rotting road sign that stated: Washington D.C. – 5 miles. We were nearly to our destination. From the looks of it, the Yellow Zone was nearly through. We spotted large walls ahead, along with something very bad.

"Orca Squadron VF-525 to NOD Units, surrender immediately or be destroyed!" a voice said over the radio. Ahead was a squadron of four helicopters, now identified as Orcas, heading for us.

"What do we do now?" Ulrich asked, also over the radio but thankfully on a secure channel.

"Surrender. I replied, "Make sure your not wearing a NOD Uniform. Look innocent."

"All units attack!"

"Shit," I said to myself. Behind me, my friends had all skidded to a stop and began retreating, I could not since the brakes would not respond.

"Do not attack! We are not NOD! Cease fire!" Aelita's voice rang through the speakers. I had little time to react before a missile launched from an Orca slammed into the ground in front of me, creating a hole that the buggy flipped over, rolling on its side several times before I blacked out. I wasn't out long and was crawling through the rubble, reaching the side of the road seconds before the buggy exploded. With blurred vision, I could barely make out my friends running toward me. In the distance, however, a large ship was approaching the site. This ship landed off the side of the road as GDI soldiers began pouring from it. My gaze drifted to words printed on the side. A random serial number followed by "Kodiak". Again I had managed to ignore Aelita's voice and in a very irritated tone, she stormed off toward Jeremie.

A rather irritating man with a portable scanner continuously ran around us, every so often saying "hmm" or "aha" before running back to the main group of soldiers where one General stood.

"Well, th-" he began.

"Speak up!" General Grainger shouted.

"Their skin cells are barely contaminated by Tiberium, only .001%, and their DNA isn't registered with our data bases. EVA confirms it: this is the crew of the Starvoid, the ship we shot down."

Many soldiers began a sigh of annoyance, "Damn kids always causing trouble," one said to the others as they all lowered their weapons.

"Call off the Zone Trooper Drop Pods!" Grainger ordered to a Communications Officer, who ran back onboard the Kodiak.

"So, you did know about us." I said, finally being able to stand without wobbling.

"Yes, but this isn't the correct place to talk, please, board the Kodiak," he motioned. On the bridge of the ship, its crew was scrambling to get it airborne again. Reports came through of a large NOD force massing outside Washington D.C., so it was imperative to get out. Jeremie began to walk around, criticizing how primitive the Kodiak was compared to the late Starvoid. I just snickered.

_Coming from the one that hated my ship in the first place,_ I thought

"We will be willing to help any way we can," the general said from behind.

"Very well," I said, "we need to use the supercomputer in the Pentagon. It's the only thing on this planet powerful enough to get us off this rock."

"I don't see any harm in that,"

* * *

"So, what exactly is this for?" a technician at the supercomputer terminal asked as he was booted from the seat. Jeremie had plugged the drive into the terminal as a command window appeared.

"Data received, commencing with ship reconstruction, ETA 50 seconds until completion." EVA reported from overhead speakers. Outside, an exact replika of the late Starvoid had began materializing, although the name printed on the hull now had a "II".

"Well, thank you very much, GDI, but we must be going. Our new ship has been constructed and…" I began, interrupted by my communication device on my arm, which produced a holographic display.

"Alert: many hostile aircraft approach from the Yellow Zone," our computer said.

"We have no detection of any aircraft," reported a GDI Officer.

"Explanation: current detection systems are primitive compared to those onboard the Starvoid Mark II. Aircraft have stealth technology."

"Send in the Firehawks and Orca detection craft!"

I turned to my friends, "Should we help out on this one?" The others nodded, and with a few taps to my holographic screen, we were transported to the Starvoid II, leaving the remaining GDI personnel baffled.

"Alright then. Yumi, deploy the main guns. Aelita, target the incoming aircraft."

Onscreen, the cloaked NOD bombers had been identified. The lasers fired, destroying most of the incoming Vertigo Bombers before Firehawks arrived from their airbases to destroy the remaining ones with primitive Air-to-Air Missiles.

"Incoming transmission. Message will be treated as a television broadcast," alerted the computer. Onscreen, an amateur astronomer's video appeared, displaying a space station.

"It appears, moments ago… there was an accident," said a voice off-screen. An object was flying towards the space station Philadelphia, blowing it to bits, some of which barely missed hitting out new ship.

"If that hits us, I'm going to be pissed!"


	5. Retreat?

_Chapter 5_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters/story originally placed in it.

Pieces of space junk continued to fall from the sky, some of which hitting the windshield of the new ship, cracking it. Before falling, a burnt piece of metal had stuck to the window with text that read "Philadelphia". Jeremie just had to start complaining about how we should have installed windshield wipers at a time like this.

"We had to show up when this was happening!" complained Yumi.

"…it was a merciful bullet to the head of…" continued the now hacked television broadcast from the man known as Kane. I could only stand in shock at what used to be a calm day in the city turned into a war zone. The main guns continued to fire automatically at incoming NOD units with intent to destroy the Pentagon, but as some were destroyed, many more replaced them.

"I say we get out while we still can!" I decided.

"Odd, what are you saying? They helped us rematerialize your ship! We have to help GDI back!" said Ulrich.

"Ship damage exceeding 78%. Advise moving to safer location before next squadron of enemy VTOL craft arrive in 30 minutes," said our computer

"Get us outta here!" shouted Jeremie with terror. Giving in, Ulrich sat down to maneuver the Starvoid Mark II to a safer location.

"I'm spotting NOD units incoming on all vectors!" Aelita reported.

"The only safe spot for us will be in orbit. Take us there!" I shouted. Ulrich began to move the throttle stick at the console when alarms occurred.

"Main engines critically damaged by Scorpion Tank fire! Speed greater than 100 miles per hour impossible," stated the computer. Small explosions occurred as the engines of the Starvoid II whined into action. We began movement over the Atlantic.

"There are more VTOL craft heading straight for us!" Aelita nearly screamed.

"First XANA, then two, now this!" Yumi continued complaining.

"We can't get any higher into the atmosphere!" Ulrich reported.

"Fine then, dive! Dive! Dive!" I shouted to Ulrich, who, in response, pulled the lever to decrease altitude, creating a large splash as the Starvoid made contact with the ocean surface.

"Stealth submarine mode activated. Beginning repairs on craft," the computer reported, my friends appeared baffled.

"With the stealth activated, the ship's engines will run on their lowest power only, about 25 knots per hour. We also can no longer make or receive a transmission, that is even if we could, since that last squadron of Venom Assault Craft took out of communications antenna," explained Jeremie.

"Repairs will take 56 hours to fully complete, but the engines are now completely repaired," said Aelita.

"Good, now, we better stay quiet, we don't know how well NOD's stealth capabilities are."

* * *

At Temple Prime…

A rather bald man sat staring at the screen of his computer.

"They are not the Visitors, who could they be?" Kane asked himself as he cycled through the hacked satellite photos of Odd and co. "But they are formidable opponents, for teenagers that is. Perhaps they can be coaxed to join our side. Kilian!"

"Yes, Prophet?" asked Kilian, now entering the room. Kane turned the holographic screen towards her.

"I want you to drop everything and find out all you can on these five. I know they hold the key to GDI's destruction one way or another!"

* * *

Several Days Later, onboard the LS Starvoid Mk II…

"Repairs successfully completed," said the computer, loudly enough in every room I was sure that it woke everybody up, not just me. I quickly dressed and ran to the bridge, which, I have to admit, was quite a ways away, especially for me, _**CAPTAIN **_Odd Della Robbia of the Starvoid. As expected, everybody had gathered at my destination.

"Now what do we do?" Aelita asked as I entered, as if impatient once again at my tardiness.

"Over the last few days," began Jeremie, "I was tracing the television transmission that apparently NOD had hacked. It traced back to a supercomputer in Sarajevo, a place called Temple Prime.

"How powerful a supercomputer?" I asked.

"About as powerful as GDI's, why, Odd? What are you thinking?"

"I'll show you." I replied, walking through the doors and motioning for the others to follow. Through the maze of hallways, we came to a wall.

"What's wrong, Odd? Forget your way?" Jeremie said, taunting me.

"No," I replied simply, pressing my hand against the wall, whose backlight blinked to life. Several seconds later, the wall dematerialized to create another corridor, one leading further to another room with a holomap, and more importantly, four scanners and a computer console.

"You can still program our virtualization, right Jeremie?" I taunted back.

"Computer connected to planetary network. Sarajevo supercomputer detected," reported the computer.

"And what exactly do you expect to do?" Jeremie asked.

"Just set a virtualization to Sector 5." I said, stepping into a scanner as Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi did the same."

"Fine, Transfer, Odd, Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Yumi," Jeremie gave in. The scanner doors shut one by one.

"Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Yumi," continued Jeremie as the glowing ring descended down the scanner interior.

"Virtualization!" shouted Jeremie as a flash of light ripped apart the atoms of my body, instantaneously digitalizing them and seconds later, I found myself reassembling in the Arena of Sector 5, along with the others.

"Odd! Are you okay?" Jeremie's voice boomed in the sector.

"Yes, why?" I replied.

"Your virtualization took thirty seconds too long!"

"What are you talking about? I was instantly sent here."

"I know I virtualized you first!"

"Never mind that now, lets go!" I ordered, running towards the now opening doors to the Core Zone with the others following.

* * *

At Temple Prime…

"What is going on?" Kilian asked a NOD Technician as she entered the room.

"We've detected a new frequency on the Internet. It is not GDI and has a number of firewalls. However, a hole in the firewall allows for specific connection to their computer, and we've cracked it," explained the technician.

"And?"

"Data was entered as soon as we cracked it, we inserted a tracer virus to the first entry, delaying it by about thirty seconds but will transmit information back to us regarding the computer and everything in it. When it's finished, the virus can delete the first entry data, in our attempt to hide our actions, just in case GDI is watching behind the scenes.


	6. The End

_Chapter 6_

Disclaimer - I do not own Code Lyoko or Command and Conquer or any of the characters originally placed in it.

"So, Odd? You also added the Skidbladnir?" Jeremie's voice boomed as the elevator reached the Skid's dry-dock.

"Yes, and we're going to figure out what's going on with that supercomputer in Sarajevo." I answered as we all stepped onto a teleportation pad and were whisked into the Skid. Aelita was not at all rusty at flying it, and in seconds we were on the network of this planet.

"Holoweb connected," Jeremie reported, "it's not that different than our own world's Internet. There's a hub in front of you, Aelita. Take it to directly access the Sarajevo supercomputer."

"Got it," she answered. The Skid swiftly made its way to the hub and soon after we found ourselves outside a large building with the all too familiar NOD Scorpion symbol on it. Aelita piloted the ship to be perpendicular with what looked like the entrance, and Jeremie began cracking the code.

"Hmm, this is easier to crack than XANA's passwords," he said.

"Coming from the one that couldn't break past XANA when he made it snow and nearly froze us to death?" asked Yumi. It was easy to tell that Jeremie was pouting from lack of contact. The door slowly began to open and the Skid flew inside.

"I can see what looks like a tower ahead!" said Aelita.

"A tower? Well towers here must be different," said Jeremie.

"Not at all," Aelita replied, "the Skid is docked and ready for translation."

"Who's going and who's staying?" I asked.

"I'll stay, I want to take a nap anyway," Ulrich volunteered. With the press of a few buttons, Aelita began the procedure. We all were translated to Temple Prime.

"Odd?" Aelita asked as I finished translating.

"What?" I replied.

"You're late again, a 30 second translation delay. Are you sure you feel fine?"

"Never better; where are we?"

"You are in a restricted area, and we knew you'd be coming," a female voice shouted, appearing from the shadows with NOD soldiers around her, "My name is Kilian, and I will convert you to join NOD, or die trying. You're technological breakthroughs could turn the favors of the Third Tiberium War in our favor."

"You honestly think that'll happen?" Yumi barked back. Kilian smiled at the comment.

"Yes I do," she said, grabbing a device from a soldiers hand and waving her finger over a specific key, "You will comply, or…" she paused, pressing the Delete key, "… you will suffer a terrible fate."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Odd! Look at your tail!" Aelita yelled. Blue data bits began slowing disappearing from the very tip of my cat costume's tail. I looked up towards the NOD group, some of them snickering over their plot to kill a teenager.

"Such a difficult job, it will take an hour to fully delete you," Killian said, almost laughing in the process before a laser blast hit the wall, obliterating the soldiers behind her. Yumi dashed forward, as did Aelita, towards Killian, snatching the device and pushing her back and knocking her unconscious. Outside through the hole in the wall, sat the Starvoid, gleaming in the sun.

"You can thank me later," Jeremie's voice echoed from speakers.

"Jeremie! Get down here now!" Aelita yelled, where seconds later Jeremie had appeared in the room.

"What do you need Aeli… what the hell's happening to Odd's tail?"

"They're deleting him! You have to do something." Aelita explained. She handed Jeremie the device she had managed to steal from Killian, who was still unconscious. Lasers continued to fly around from the Starvoid, hitting AA batteries and grounded aircraft around Temple Prime.

"I… I can try," Jeremie said with such a tone that made me feel like all hope was lost. I collapsed to the floor several minutes after Jeremie began attempting the job. The deletion had began on my legs. GDI was now invading Temple Prime through hordes of Mammoth Tanks and Firehawk jets. Sweat poured on Jeremie's face as he continued, "They have a pretty good password on it. It'll take at least a half an hour to crack, even through the supercomputer on the Starvoid."

"Jeremie, the deletion will complete in twenty minutes." I strained to say as more data bits were removed on my upper torso.

"I don't… I don't know what to do, I…" Jeremie stuttered. Suddenly a flash of white light shone from the portable device. An upside-down eye of XANA appeared on it's monitor.

"It's Franz Hopper! He's somehow cracking the codes for us!" Aelita yelled with happiness.

"The deletion is being reversed!" Jeremie said. I stood up, finally, and walked to the others. An image of Franz Hopper appeared on the screen, based back at the lab in the Factory.

"Thank you," I said to him.

"It's returning the favor to you for saving Aelita from XANA, and helping in the fight against him. Just get back to Earth, will you?" he replied.

"How did you know that we were here?" Aelita asked.

"Those clones of yours are good, but not perfect. There is no way that Jeremie could possibly run a mile in four minutes during gym class, that's how I knew."

"We'll be heading back soon then," I said back, "I think that's enough excitement for one… week. Don't you guys?"

"Definitely!"

* * *

"Prepare for gateway creation!" I said.

Jeremie pressed several buttons and the computer then said, "Begin gateway creation, Code: Beta 64. No anomalies detected."

"Let's go home!"


End file.
